"Who IS this guy?"

Perhaps as you read this site, you think: "Who is this guy? And why should I listen to what he has to say?"

The only reason you should listen to me is that you find what I say to be interesting. I have no film degree. I’ve just been watching films forever and read a great deal on films and filmmaking. I also call a lot on the literature I’ve read, art I’ve seen, the current news I keep up with, my reading of the complete published works of Freud, and my smart friends.

I make no claim to be objective, credible or fair. This is my opinion and my viewpoint, and if you don't like it, there are lots of other movie websites out there. And it's not too expensive to start your own.

This site reflects a few principles:

“Quality” is only one, fairly narrow way to view a film.
Most film reviews judge a film by how “good” it is. I think this is only one, fairly narrow, way of looking at it. There are lots of films that are “bad” or mediocre, but are much more interesting and / or entertaining than many other “good” films. If you’re only looking at a film in terms of how “good” it is in relation to the canon, or you only watch “good” movies, I think you’re the one limiting yourself.

The focus is on whether you’ll enjoy watching it.
It’s awesome that some super-great film may be the best thing that ever happened to cinema, but what we’re interested in here is whether it’s something the average educated person with a job and a budget and a social life and prior time commitments is going to enjoy watching. If not, let’s leave it to the professional critics and grad students.

I only write if I have something to say.
There’s just too much blather on the Internet. Therefore, one of the principles of this site is I’ll only write about a film if I have something interesting to say about it, that isn’t already said extensively elsewhere. For this reason, I shy away from writing about classic warhorses that have already been picked apart in detail by others.

We look past the cheesiness to focus on the ideas.
Some of the most interesting and artful movies have low budgets. Sometimes a film has to seem a little silly in order to get across its ideas. I’m obviously not above making fun of someone’s hair or the cheapness of a set or garishness of an outfit, but for the most part we’re concerned with what the film is trying to say.

What else? I live in New York City. I am gay. I work as an interactive copywriter. I am in my early 40s. I have an English Lit degree. I do oil painting. I write. I grew up in Michigan. This website was conceived as I was sitting through Alone in the Dark and wishing I could tell people about all the silly things I noticed in it. And now here we are.